about to turn back. And then I saw the other--the horses coming down the
stream. It was terrible. Are they all drowned?"

"All that you saw. It wasn't a pretty sight, was it?" There was a
suggestive inquiry in his voice as he added, "If you had gone to Tête Jaune
you would have missed the unpleasantness of the spectacle."

"I would have gone, but something happened. They say it was a cave-in, a
slide--something like that. The train cannot go on until to-morrow."

"And you are to stay with the Ottos?"

She nodded.

Quick as a flash she had seemed to read his thoughts.

"I am sorry," she added, before he could speak. "I can see that I have
annoyed you. I have literally projected myself into your work, and I am
afraid that I have caused you trouble. Mrs. Otto has told me of this man
they call Quade. She says he is dangerous. And I have made him your enemy."

"I am, not afraid of Quade. The incident was nothing more than an agreeable
interruption to what was becoming a rather monotonous existence up here. I
have always believed, you know, that a certain amount of physical
excitement is good oil for our mental machinery. That, perhaps, was why you
caught me hauling at His Coltship's ear."

He had spoken stiffly. There was a hard note in his voice, a suggestion of
something that was displeasing in his forced laugh. He knew that in these
moments he was fighting against his inner self--against his desire to tell